“At the time, I was writing long (short-story length) fiction that had no purpose or clear endings and many, many, many unfinished stories sitting on my computer,” Yoner wrote in an email. Yoner has completed the challenge every year but twice since starting in 2002, although since she became a municipal liaison in 2011, she admitted that her November writing habits have become a bit more erratic. In Edmonton, municipal liaison Crystal Yoner works with a co-organizer to encourage those one day novelists (locally the EdmoWrimo Literary Ninjas), organizing structured writing events and providing support (and sometimes distractions to get writers’ minds off their novels-in-progress). If you like what I do here and want to keep this content free,Ĭonsider supporting me and my work by buying me a coffee.Over the next 30 days, Edmontonians will become well-acquainted with their word processors of choice as they attempt to write 50,000-word stories during National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.Īcross six continents, the challenge motivates what founder Chris Baty calls “one day novelists” - anyone who has ever uttered the phrase, “, one day I’ll write a novel.” The EdmoWrimo Literary Ninjas are Edmonton’s local National Novel Writing Month community.
What if you did gangbusters the first day or two and you’re sitting at about 3,300 words? What if you’ve lost interest in your story or characters? What if your motivation just disappeared? Here are some quick-click reference resources that you can bookmark to allow you to look something up quickly and then get right back to writing.
Quick Reference Resources for NaNo or other Writing Marathons Two main things that can really help motivate you (or discourage you) when you’re participating in a marathon writing challenge are setting daily word-count goals and then tracking your progress. Setting Daily Word-Count Goals and Tracking Your Progress One thing that can make a writing marathon like NaNoWriMo discouraging and make writers want to give up is the failure to realize the difference between draft writing and regular writing.
#Nano writing challenge full#
The easiest way to write a full synopsis-as well as to have a good structure for planning your story-is to use some kind of outline structure. Taking Pre-Planning Your Story a Step (or Seven) Further with an Outline and/or Synopsis One of the essential ingredients in pre-planning your writing in order to be able to churn out a high word count in a short time span is to know what your story is about before you start writing.
#Nano writing challenge series#
These are SOOOOOOOO helpful, not just to an editor, but also for yourself both in your revision process and as you go forward in a series so you can maintain consistency in the way you do things.įiguring Out What Your Story’s “About” Before You Start Writing (writing blurbs, synopses) This section will grow as you write your story and as incidental (or not so incidental) characters pop up in scenes. Because what they wear says a lot about them.Īdding Secondary and Minor Characters to Your Story Bible And even if you’re writing contemporary, you still need to figure out what is in your characters’ wardrobes. Whether you’re writing ancient Rome, Regency England, Mars Colony circa 2445, or a world of your own making, your characters will, in most cases, need some kind of garments to wear. But it is important to know where things are, whether or not you’re mentioning them every single time your character is in the same location. We aren’t necessarily “showing” every single prop in every single scene. I say to add a “section” because there are various aspects to setting that need to be explored/recorded, and you’re going to need more than a “page” for this part (and probably a whole lot more than just one day). Get your characters into S.H.A.P.E.Īdd a section for Settings to your story bible.
#Nano writing challenge how to#
Here’s the easiest way to remember how to do your prep work when it comes to character development. If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to put the full description of each of your main (POV) characters into your story bible.Ĭreating Your Story Bible-Getting Your Characters into SHAPE Something that all writers (should) do is to keep a “bible” for your book/series (even more important in the case of a series) in order to keep up with all the trivial-and not-so-trivial-details going on.Ĭreating Your Story Bible-What Do Your Main Characters Look Like? So let’s get prepped!Ĭreating a Story Bible Step 1-Pick Your Poison (or Software) Preparing to write a manuscript in a month can be a daunting prospect-especially if you aren’t prepared.
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